Classical Season Preview 2024-25: Europe
Jack Pepper
Friday, September 6, 2024
What are the most exciting concerts and operas to look forward to over the coming season across Europe? Jack Pepper is your guide
Liceu Barcelona: La sonnambula is showing during April and May, with Nadine Sierra (above) scheduled to sing the role of Amina for six of the eight performances (photography: Javier del Real fotografia)
Aalborg Symphony Orchestra
There’s a virtual-reality event first for Denmark with Concert Magic in 3D in October: families are invited to virtually sit in the middle of the orchestra as they perform Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony. Romanticism and Jazz is a January theme, with chamber works by Poulenc, Martinů and Smetana. And in May, Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins is paired with Duke Ellington’s Harlem.
Accademia Bizantina
Artistic Director Ottavio Dantone leads Monteverdi’s Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria in Ravenna (November), and Handel’s Giulio Cesare (starring Raffaele Pe) occupies January and February.
Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome
Incoming Music Director Daniel Harding opens the season with concert performances of Tosca in October, starring Eleonora Buratto alongside Jonathan Tetelman as Cavaradossi. Visiting conductors include Maxim Emelyanychev (welcoming Leif Ove Andsnes for Beethoven’s Emperor Piano Concerto in November), Dalia Stasevska (Orff’s Carmina Burana, December) and Gustavo Dudamel (for a festive The Nutcracker).
Liceu Barcelona
Lohengrin, La sonnambula and Rusalka are among the classics scheduled for 2025, and there’s an exploration of the life of 20th-century German philosopher and literary critic Walter Benjamin in Antoni Ros-Marbà’s opera Benjamin a Portbou.
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Sir Simon Rattle enters his second season as Chief Conductor and in September leads an all-star cast in Bach’s St Matthew Passion, with Mark Padmore, Magdalena Kožená and Roderick Williams. Stuart Skelton and Lise Davidsen feature in Act 2 of Tristan und Isolde (November), and Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts Igor Levit in Busoni’s Piano Concerto (June).
Bavarian State Opera
Aspects of love are the theme for the season: love as heaven, purgatory or hell. First, love is renounced in Das Rheingold, staged by Tobias Kratzer. February sees a new production of Strauss’s Die Liebe der Danae, exploring love in mythology with director Claus Guth returning to Munich for the fourth time. Later, the Ja, Mai Festival showcases Matsukaze by Toshio Hosokawa and Das Jagdgewehr by Thomas Larcher.
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
There’s a collaboration with Bergen National Opera for a staging of Korngold’s Die tote Stadt in November; Sir Mark Elder conducts Rachmaninov’s Third Symphony in January; Johan Dalene is the soloist for Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in February; and Bryn Terfel provides the season finale.
Berlin Philharmonic
Berlin regular the pianist Seong-Jin Cho is artist-in-residence this year, and new visitors include conductors Marin Alsop, Joana Mallwitz and Kazuki Yamada. A highlight in February is the biennale titled Paradise Lost?, which explores the beauty of and threat to nature, featuring works such as Debussy’s La mer and Brett Dean’s Fire Music (written in response to bush fires).
Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin
As 2025 marks 100 years since Boulez’s birth, this season surveys all his major works with the help of the Boulez Ensemble, violinist Michael Barenboim, the Jack Quartet, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, George Benjamin and Pierre-Laurent Aimard.
The Chamber Orchestra of Europe in rehearsal – its busy 2024-25 schedule involves much touring, including to the UK in April (photography: Nicholas Eastop)
Chamber Orchestra of Europe
November sees a nine-concert tour to Italy, Germany and France with Sir Antonio Pappano and pianist Bertrand Chamayou, performing Milhaud, Ravel, Gershwin and Bernstein. 2025 begins with a tour to Berlin, Hamburg, Salzburg and Gstaad with Robin Ticciati and countertenor Iestyn Davies (working with the COE for the first time). In the spring, the orchestra accompanies pianist Sunwook Kim on an intercontinental tour, including visits to the UK’s Saffron Hall and Barbican (April). Yannick Nézet-Séguin visits for the annual residency at the Festspielhaus, Baden-Baden (July).
Czech Philharmonic
The first half of the season coincides with the Year of Czech Music, so amid much of that there’s Jakub Hrůša completing his Suk cycle. The season opens with Chief Conductor Semyon Bychkov alongside artist-in-residence Daniil Trifonov, and later Alan Gilbert makes his podium debut with the orchestra.
Danish National Symphony Orchestra
Bruce Liu joins Chief Conductor Fabio Luisi for Scriabin’s Piano Concerto in November, while Tarmo Peltokoski gives his debut concert in Denmark conducting Strauss and Shostakovich. It’s a packed month of firsts, since Danielle de Niese visits for the first time for a unique pairing of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Weill’s cabaret-inspired The Seven Deadly Sins. In 2025 the orchestra heads out on its centenary tour, before Barbara Hannigan is both vocalist and conductor for a cross-genre concert in May featuring Gershwin, Ives and Ruth Crawford Seeger.
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Principal Guest Conductor Tarmo Peltokoski welcomes Jan Lisiecki for Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto (October), and Thomas Adès leads an eclectic programme of his own work plus Haydn and Ibert (November). Paavo Järvi (Artistic Director now for 20 years) welcomes December with Dvořák and Mendelssohn.
Deutsche Oper Berlin
In his last season as Artistic Director, Dietmar Schwarz offers new productions of Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten, Weill’s Mahagonny and Respighi’s La fiamma.
Dresden Semperoper
It’s a season of big anniversaries: in November, Strauss’s Intermezzo celebrates 100 years since its premiere in Dresden; February marks 40 years since the reopening of the Semperoper; and the Semperoper Ballet celebrates 200 years. There are 10 new opera and four new ballet productions, alongside 27 revivals and special events. Look out for the Dresden premiere of Boito’s Mefistofele starring Krzysztof Bączyk.
Dresden Staatskapelle
See out 2024 with conductor Karina Canellakis and soprano Fatma Said, and enjoy new Chief Conductor Daniele Gatti performing Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Christian Gerhaher in February.
Aalto Musiktheater, Essen
As ever, the programming is wonderfully varied, with October offering My Fair Lady, Rudolf Buchbinder leading the Dresden Staatskapelle in Mozart piano concertos, Wozzeck and Don Giovanni. November opens with an avant-garde streak from Berio’s Sequenza and Stockhausen’s Resonanzen; and New Year’s Eve brings Grofé’s Mississippi Suite and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (marking the last day of its centenary year).
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
Home-grown talent abounds. Neeme Järvi opens the season in grand style with Kapp’s oratorio Hiiob (‘Job’). He conducts other lesser-performed Estonian composers in October, including Artur Lemba and Heino Eller. Expansive repertoire continues in 2025, with Lili Boulanger and Estonian composer Helena Tulve (b1972) joining Schumann in March, with Steven Isserlis and Olari Elts.
European Union Youth Orchestra
A 30-strong group of EUYO alumni joins the Budapest Festival Orchestra for the Bridging Europe Festival in Budapest and Brussels in September. Programming in 2025 includes Mahler’s Second Symphony alongside music by Stravinsky and Enescu, and residencies in Bolzano and Cremona as well as projects in Malaysia and Mexico. Other plans include celebrations of Berio’s centenary and the 750th anniversary of the city of Amsterdam.
Flanders Symphony Orchestra
Duncan Ward leads a musical walk through history with Rameau, Stravinsky and Berio in November and December. Protest is the theme of their February concerts, with Christoph Koncz on the podium for composers making a statement: Haydn’s Farewell Symphony, Shostakovich’s Ninth, Elgar’s Cello Concerto (soloist Johannes Moser) and Protest Song – Creation by Siebe Thijs of the orchestra’s Composers’ Academy.
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Vox Luminis joins the orchestra to bring Bach’s Mass in B minor to Berlin’s Philharmonie in October. René Jacobs conducts a concert performance of Handel’s Tamerlano in Barcelona in May (Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian heading the cast).
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
Boulez 100 is celebrated in style in April, as Éclat is performed alongside Bartók’s ballet suite The Wooden Prince and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G (soloist Pierre-Laurent Aimard). The Shostakovich Festival Leipzig (May) marks 50 years since his death with one of the most comprehensive explorations of his works around, including Chief Conductor Andris Nelsons leading Daniil Trifonov in the Second Piano Concerto.
Gothenburg Opera
Two October gala evenings celebrate the company’s 30th anniversary, while new productions include Otello (November to January), Peter Grimes (March and April, directed by Netia Jones) and the Swedish premiere for Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (sung in Swedish).
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
It’s concertos galore. Artist-in-residence Ava Bahari performs Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto at the season opening, under Chief Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali. Tan Dun’s Double Bass Concerto gets an outing in October (uniquely paired with Rott’s First Symphony), and Poulenc’s Concerto for two pianos will be performed by brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen in March.
Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
Boulez and Schoenberg take centre stage at the venue in their anniversary years; guitarist Marc Ribot curates a cross-genre weekend in November; there are visits from Chineke! and the National SO of Ukraine; and Klaus Mäkelä visits with three of his orchestras – Oslo Philharmonic (November), Orchestre de Paris (February), Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (April) – and conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in Mahler’s Sixth (December).
Iceland Symphony Orchestra
Their popular annual Vienna concerts welcome in the new year, with stage dancers joining soprano Bryndís Gudjónsdóttir and tenor Einar Dagur Jónsson. There’s a strong representation of female composers throughout the season, including Lotta Wennäkoski, Anna Clyne, Fanny Mendelssohn, Farrenc and Carwithen (hurrah for her overture ODTAA (One Damn Thing after Another) getting an outing in May, aided by Andrew Manze!).
Insula Orchestra
The link between sound and visuals is explored in January, with the programme Van Gogh, Klimt and Me charting the relationship between artists and composers such as Satie and Alma Mahler. The orchestra’s noted championship of great Romantic female composers continues with Mayer’s Piano Concerto in March (soloist David Fray).
Irish National Opera
There’s Rigoletto in December (directed by Julien Chavaz and designed by Jamie Vartan, the team behind INO’s celebrated William Tell), Die Fledermaus in February and Der fliegende Holländer in March.
Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège
Music Director Gergely Madaras presents heroic pictures by Strauss, with Till Eulenspiegel and Don Juan, while Lionel Bringuier conducts Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. And the orchestra gets festive with Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker at Christmas.
Philharmonie Luxembourg
There are three big birthdays: the venue turns 20, the Fondation EME is 15, and Gustavo Gimeno celebrates his 10th and final season as Music Director before heading to Madrid. Plus, the Rainy Days Festival celebrates new music with more than 50 events in November, curated by the Luxemburgish composer Catherine Kontz. Renaud Capuçon visits in March for Beethoven and Mozart.
Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano
The 150th anniversary of the birth of inventor Guglielmo Marconi and 100 years since the first Italian broadcast are celebrated with a premiere for Nicola Campogrande in October. The next month, Daniel Lozakovich visits for Schumann’s Violin Concerto, while Andrew Litton conducts an all-Prokofiev programme in March.
Munich Philharmonic
There are star guests aplenty. Alice Sara Ott is the soloist for Bryce Dessner’s Piano Concerto in January; John Adams is on the podium for his own Harmonielehre in March, and Zubin Mehta’s there for Mahler’s Fifth Symphony in May; Hilary Hahn brings Brahms’s Violin Concerto in July.
Müpa Budapest
The Hungarian RSO brings a British programme of Elgar and Holst in October. In November, Jeneba Kanneh-Mason visits for Chopin’s Piano Concerto No 2, and before that, Pécs Ballet takes us into Carmina Burana.
Oslo Philharmonic
There’ll be 19 guest conductors visiting from around the world. After Chief Conductor Klaus Mäkelä welcomes Vilde Frang for Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto in October, Dalia Stasevska appears in December to conduct Bernstein’s Serenade (violin soloist Karen Gomyo) and Caroline Shaw’s The Observatory. Mäkelä returns for the season finale in May, with Sinding, Debussy, Stravinsky and Grieg.
Palau de la Música
The Catalan venue has more than 100 concerts scheduled, including a November programme of Schubert, Hahn and Fauré songs performed by Philippe Jaroussky with Jérôme Ducros; a visit from the Philharmonia Orchestra and Marin Alsop in January, performing Jessie Montgomery, Prokofiev and Korngold’s Violin Concerto (soloist María Dueñas); and Jonas Kaufmann with Diana Damrau in April.
Palazzetto Bru Zane
This Venice-based organisation is all about rediscovering all kinds of French repertoire from the period 1780 to 1920, and for the first time the opening cycle of the season doesn’t focus on a composer or aesthetic, but rather on the cello. Seven concerts in the autumn will spotlight string quintets with two cellos, works for cello and piano, and works for multiple cellos. And to mark 150 years since the death of Bizet and the premiere of Carmen, the series Cycle Bizet, ‘L’oiseau rebelle’ will give an overview of the composer’s diverse output, from opera to piano works.
Opéra National de Paris
Expect Offenbach’s Les brigands directed by Barrie Kosky; Gounod’s Faust from Tobias Kratzer; and, in the new year, Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen directed by André Engel.
Orchestre de Paris
Music Director Klaus Mäkelä leads two themes through this season: French music, and the idea of creation. Other notable programmes include Kirill Karabits welcoming Khatia Buniatishvili for Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto, alongside some Scriabin and a work by Iranian composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh; Esa-Pekka Salonen leading the LA Dance Project in March; and a visit from the young star pianist Yunchan Lim in June.
Il Pomo d’Oro
They bring Mozart to the Vienna Musikverein with Maxim Emelyanychev in November, before taking Gesualdo to Essen. December sees Handel’s Alcina in Paris, Madrid and Vienna. Next year includes the Beyond tour in Asia with Jakub Józef Orliński (January), and Joyce DiDonato and Michael Spyres joining the ensemble for Handel’s Jeptha in Paris, Madrid, Oviedo, Dortmund, Budapest and Katowice in May.
Rotterdam PO: Saariaho and Shostakovich under Principal Guest Conductor 24-year-old Tarmo Peltokoski is just one of the highlights
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
As September draws to a close, Lahav Shani is on the podium as Martha Argerich plays Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto. John Adams conducts his Harmonielehre in October, and 24-year-old Tarmo Peltokoski – entering the second year of his four-year tenure as Principal Guest Conductor – leads a programme of music by Saariaho and Shostakovich in November.
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Augustin Hadelich and conductor Karina Canellakis join forces for Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in October; Christmas Day sees chief conductor designate Klaus Mäkelä lead a programme of Strauss, Wagner and Unsuk Chin; and the new year welcomes Sir Antonio Pappano for Berlioz.
Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra
October visitors include Joshua Bell for Wieniawski’s Second Violin Concerto, and Antoni Wit to conduct an all-Polish programme of Lutosławski, Karłowicz and Kilar. Daniel Hope joins the orchestra in December for an eclectic Weill, Gershwin and Korngold night, which will also showcase Bulgarian composer Vladigerov’s overture to the musical The Wolf and the Seven Goat Kids.
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic
This is Ryan Bancroft’s second season as Chief Conductor, and he embarks on his first European tour, joined by Nina Stemme across Germany and Austria in the spring. In May, Maxim Vengerov returns to the orchestra for the first time in three decades. Víkingur Ólafsson is the artist-in-residence.
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Saxophonist Valentine Michaud is in residence, exploring the different facets of the instrument in music ranging from Ravel to Messiaen. Yo-Yo Ma visits for the first time, and Music Director Jonathan Nott also welcomes Martha Argerich, Sonya Yoncheva and Midori.
Les Talens Lyriques
In October, there’s a North American tour for Christophe Rousset’s French Baroque orchestra as they take Lully, Montéclair, Couperin and Lambert to San Francisco, Washington DC, Montreal and elsewhere. December sees them perform Handel’s Orlando on stage in Paris, starring Katarina Bradić in the title-role and Siobhan Stagg as Angelica. Come March and April, there’s a European tour of a Bach programme, before Lully’s Prosperine provides a season finale at Versailles and the Theater an der Wien in May. Véronique Gens stars.
Teatro alla Scala
Alongside opera stalwarts like Falstaff and Die Walküre in Milan during January and February, 2025 sees Weill represented in a triptych of The Seven Deadly Sins, Mahagonny and Happy End, all staged by Irina Brook (the last in a new production) and conducted by Riccardo Chailly (May). At the ballet, choreographer-librettist Edward Clug’s Peer Gynt debuts at La Scala in April.
Teatro Real
For the first time at the Madrid theatre, there are performances of Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur and Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda (both in productions by David McVicar, the latter a new one). And there’s a strong Mozart showing, with Mitridate, re di Ponto and Idomeneo.
Orchestre Nationale du Capitole de Toulouse
Music Director Tarmo Peltokoski opens the season with Mahler’s Second Symphony and leads Shostakovich and Schoenberg in November, with Patricia Kopatchinskaja performing the former’s First Violin Concerto. There’s also a December screening of Charlie Chaplin’s film The Great Dictator (1940), before 2025 is welcomed with Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony.
National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine
The orchestra’s 106th concert season opens in Kyiv with Elgar, Britten and a world premiere for Ukrainian composer Yakov Hubanov. Later, there’s another world premiere: Ivan Nebesnyi’s suite from the ballet Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, paired with Walton’s Viola Concerto (soloist Oleksandr Pogoryelov).
Vienna Philharmonic
Riccardo Muti will conduct the New Year’s Day Concert, and will lead performances of music by Catalani, Stravinsky and Bruckner in February. The orchestra is in California in March, playing Strauss, Beethoven and Schubert under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, before he joins them back in Vienna. Thomas Adès is there in May for a concert of his own music alongside some György Kurtág, Boulez and Haydn.
Vienna Staatsoper
György Kurtág was 92 when his first opera, based on Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, was premiered in 2018; here, Fin de partie will be heard in October in a Herbert Fritsch production conducted by Simone Young. February sees Norma return to the house after a long hiatus, directed by Cyril Teste, fresh from last season’s Salome. Lydia Steier directs a new staging of Wagner’s Tannhäuser in May.
Opera Wrocławska
There’s a Madama Butterfly in March and Mozart’s Requiem in April. Peter Salem’s Frida, which explores the life of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, gets a house premiere in June.
Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra
Music Director Paavo Järvi continues his Mahler cycle with the First and Seventh Symphonies. Víkingur Ólafsson will perform the two Brahms piano concertos and give the Swiss premiere of a new piano concerto by John Adams. Composer Anna Thorvaldsdóttir is Creative Chair, with nine of her works featuring this season.
This article originally appeared in the October 2024 issue of Gramophone magazine. Never miss an issue – subscribe to Gramophone today
